An open source platform for DIY SDN.

Mitch Wagner, Executive Editor, Light Reading

September 2, 2015

2 Min Read
Open Source Router Makes Production Debut

The CloudRouter Project released a production version of its software Wednesday, for network operators looking for a no-hassle DIY SDN platform.

Version 2.0 of CloudRouter , an open source router designed for the cloud, is actually two versions, one based on CentOS Linux, for network operators looking for a stable version with long support cycle, and another based on Fedora for rapid iteration of new features, Jay Turner, CloudRouter project lead and senior director of DevOps at Console Inc. , tells Light Reading. (See Open Source 'CloudRouter' Aims to Simplify Cloud Migration.)

In addition to the additional stability you would expect from a first production release, CloudRouter 2.0 updates to the latest Lithium version of the OpenDaylight and Cardinal version of the ONOS SDN controllers, and adds technologies for monitoring and denial-of-service mitigation. CloudRouter 2.0 includes BGPstream for BGP analysis, Mininet for developing network simulations for SDN proof-of-concepts, and a new BGP routing daemon, ExaBGP, in addition to Quagga and BIRD.

CloudRouter is seeing three primary use cases, by service providers and enterprises. Some users are looking to implement BGP routing with software they know will be supported, Turner says. Other users are looking to implement ONOS or OpenDaylight, which can be difficult to get up and running, and are looking to CloudRouter for pre-tested versions of the software. And the third use case is network operators attracted to CloudRouter as a stable network operating system to experiment with SDN. "These are users picking it up and playing with it, and munging it and tweaking it," Turner says.

The CloudRouter project currently has no plans to release a commercial, supported version of CloudRouter, as Red Hat Inc. (NYSE: RHT) does with Linux and Brocade Communications Systems Inc. (Nasdaq: BRCD) with the Brocade SDN Controller, a version of OpenDaylight. That could change if there is sufficient demand, Turner says.

Want to know more about SDN? Visit Light Reading's SDN technology content channel.

IIX is the primary sponsor of CloudRouter, and looks to the software to boost performance on its own network, Turner says.

Also supporting CloudRouter are Australian National University, CloudBees, Cloudius Systems, NGINX, ONOS and OpenDaylight.

Open source and SDN are key elements of the New IP, giving service providers the network agility they need for rapid deployment of new services.

— Mitch Wagner, Circle me on Google+ Follow me on TwitterVisit my LinkedIn profileFollow me on Facebook, West Coast Bureau Chief, Light Reading. Got a tip about SDN or NFV? Send it to [email protected].

About the Author(s)

Mitch Wagner

Executive Editor, Light Reading

San Diego-based Mitch Wagner is many things. As well as being "our guy" on the West Coast (of the US, not Scotland, or anywhere else with indifferent meteorological conditions), he's a husband (to his wife), dissatisfied Democrat, American (so he could be President some day), nonobservant Jew, and science fiction fan. Not necessarily in that order.

He's also one half of a special duo, along with Minnie, who is the co-habitor of the West Coast Bureau and Light Reading's primary chewer of sticks, though she is not the only one on the team who regularly munches on bark.

Wagner, whose previous positions include Editor-in-Chief at Internet Evolution and Executive Editor at InformationWeek, will be responsible for tracking and reporting on developments in Silicon Valley and other US West Coast hotspots of communications technology innovation.

Beats: Software-defined networking (SDN), network functions virtualization (NFV), IP networking, and colored foods (such as 'green rice').

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